F. Romall Smalls is the associate minister for social justice at Grace Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, N.Y., and is co-chair of the LGBT Faith Leaders of African Descent.
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Lamenting Our Gentrified Churches
Image via RNS/Creative Commons
The neighborhood has long been home to numerous historic and not-so-historic houses of worship of nearly every size and type. Here you can find congregations of Muslims, Hebrew Israelites, AMEs, Baptists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, and everything else in between.
So who cares if a few churches have to be razed to make Harlem “great again,” right?
I do.
Dear Kim Burrell, We All Have a Seat at God's Table
Image via RNS/Reuters/Molly Riley
The backlash to gospel singer Kim Burrell’s homophobic rant was swift: canceled national television appearances and the termination of her local public radio show.
But to those of us in religious communities, it’s important to note that, even as the controversy over Burrell’s statement recedes from the national spotlight, the issue of what goes on in the vast majority of American churches remains a festering wound.